Free Republic

<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A Tennessee inmate's final words were "let's rock" moments before he became the first man executed in the electric chair in that state since 2007, put to death for the killings of two men during a drug deal-turned-robbery decades ago.</p>

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Attorneys for death row inmate Edmund Zagorski filed yet another suit in federal court Friday in what is likely among one of his final options to stop his upcoming death penalty, set to be carried out in the electric chair on Thursday. In this latest lawsuit, Zagorski’s attorney Kelley Henry claims the state’s method of execution by electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment and “utterly barbaric,” despite Zagorski selecting the electric chair over lethal injection – a choice that Henry has described as the lesser of two evils. ​​Zagorski’s attorney claims both forms of execution are unconstitutional,...

Attorneys for a Tennessee death row prisoner were trying to spare him from lethal injection and they succeeded — but not the way they hoped. Instead of getting the needle, Edmund Zagorski is scheduled to die in the electric chair on Nov. 1. If the execution goes forward, he will be only the second person to be executed that way in Tennessee since 1960. His case illustrates how hard it is for states to find ways to execute prisoners that courts will deem humane; the challenge attorneys face trying to save their clients from execution; and the frustration of some...